I've been studying stress a lot lately. I've studied it in the past, but my most recent course has brought me some new information and new ideas about where stress comes from and how we deal with it. Now I know what you're thinking, "Doreen, I already know what stresses me. It's my job, or it's my kids, my elderly parents, my S/O, and don't even get me started on traffic jams!" The truth of the matter that these external factors are not the root cause of stress. But let me back up a bit. First of all, Why do we have "stress"? Well, we have an automatic response to danger. You've probably already have heard about the "fight or flight" response. Way back when a wooly mammoth was chasing us, our sympathetic nervous system responded by producing a hormone (really a group of hormones, but to keep it simple, we'll just say the primary one, cortisol). Our bodies would then temporarily shut down other non-essential organs or syst
You've come to a fork in the road and you stop. You are unsure about your direction, your future and you start to question your life.